> Bad sectors are giving me lots of trouble with my VAXstation 2000
> install.  The tar.gz files that I copy over end up corrupt.  I'm now
> sure that those error messages I get aren't just ECC correctable errors.
> It also seems to me that NetBSD wiped the bad sector maps that the
> VAXstation 2000 format created.  Now they show only two bad sectors and
> they used to show a lot more.  (BTW.  Does anybody know how to rebuild
> those?  Test 71 just prints out a list but it doesn't seem to save the
> list.)
> 
Test 70 (I think) should rebuild the bad-sector map.

> Anyways, what should I do?  I know that there is a program called
> badsect that can be used to create files for bad sectors.  However, this
> wouldn't do anything about swap, and I'm worried about that too.  Also,
> there is bad144.  Neither the binary nor its man pages are with the
> distribution, but I've found the source and man page at an FTP site.  Is
> this compatible with NetBSD/VAX?
> 
DEC STANDARD 144 bad sector forwarding were used on old disks
(e.g. Massbus disks). MSCP and MFM disks uses another way, hidden from
the user. I don't know how it works, and doesn't have any docs for
it, but the spare sectors are located outside the range accessible from
normal NetBSD handling. The controller replaces the bad sectors
automatically without any driver intervention. 
I know this is true for MSCP disks, and I think it works the same way
on MFM disks.
Badsect can only be used to map away bad sectors in the data area on
the disk, it can't map away bad superblocks etc...

BTW: If anyone encountered panics related to raw disk activity like fsck
on MV2000 then they can be pleased; that bug is fixed. Also; if someone
fails to use the d partition on MFM disks; it's also fixed.

BTWBTW: I have fixed so that netbooting of VS2000 works. It loads boot 
via MOP that loads the kernel. I am now running a diskless 2MB VS2000
with a tailored kernel that gets ~700K free memory for user programs :-)

-- Ragge